


Heartache Tonight

by daydream11



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-10-11
Updated: 2009-10-11
Packaged: 2020-08-23 20:56:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20221426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daydream11/pseuds/daydream11
Summary: They were the ones who had a strong history of religious passion, didn’t celebrate Halloween, and hated anything that even suggested witchcraft. (Sometimes even Hot Topic for the more obsessive ones.)





	Heartache Tonight

**Author's Note:**

> For the hh_writersblock's challenge, #55 Wizards Around the World

  
“Molly, baby? You okay back there?”  
  
The girl in question shivered violently at her mother’s soft words and groped along the path, her breath catching every time she stumbled despite the silencing charm her mother had cast on their movements before their journey had begun that evening. In the weak starlight she could see her mother in front of her, barely visible under a glimmerspell and a dark cloak. She grasped the offered hand and took a deep breath, smiled weakly.  
  
“Yeah, Mom. I’m good.”   
  
Audrey Weasley grinned, a white smile standing out among the surrounding black, and squeezed her hand. “We can Apparate now, if you’re steady. The home is only five miles away from here.” Molly gulped and nodded. “Be brave now, baby,” Audrey said and, holding her daughter close, disappeared into the night with a faint crack.  
  
Molly staggered once she reappeared. “I’m okay, Mom, I’m alright,” she promised once she regained her footing. Once Audrey was sure, she led the two of them down a quiet suburban road. Molly believed it to be almost midnight this Sunday, and it showed: almost every window in the houses was dark, save for a few here and there where she imagined students finally completing the work they had had all weekend to do. She would have smiled; a walk in the dead of night with her mother was something of a ritual, something the two of them did often to talk and enjoy each other’s company, but this was the first time she and her mother had a mission to complete on their under-dark walks.  
  
Molly was well aware of how dangerous Audrey’s job at the Congress was. She was an Assimilator, a special kind of agent employed by the Congress to rescue Muggleborns from abusive Muggle households and provide them with the tools needed for them to accept their magical abilities. She had never met any of the people her mother and other Assimilators had rescued, but she heard the stories, knew the stereotype: Southern, Christian, and suspicious. Probably Republican, too, though that wasn’t always the case, especially in the Washington, D.C. area where she lived. They were the ones who had a strong history of religious passion, didn’t celebrate Halloween, and hated anything that even smelled of witchcraft. (Sometimes even Hot Topic for the more obsessive ones.)  
  
Trudging after her mother, Molly allowed her thoughts to wander to her sister. The girl often came home from school with stories of remnant Slytherin–Gryffindor hostilities, of how some of their cousins gave her grief about being one pureblood boy’s best friend and being a Slytherin herself. She was beginning to look down on Audrey’s work, claiming that the religious persecution of Muggleborns is “so archaic, really; America is so behind the times and why can’t they just create their own world like the English?” To which Audrey would shake her head sadly and whisper “you’ll understand, Luce, one day” and Molly would ball her fists and wish her sister back to Hogwarts, _puh-lease_.  
  
_She_ knew how serious their mother’s job was. Lucy hadn’t seen witch burnings or wizard beheadings or seen magical toddlers drowned in baby pools. Molly has witnessed exorcisms and beatings and too many wand snappings to count or remember; she forgot to scream in horror last night when the _Washington Post_ reported yet another mysterious death by an underground gang suspected of being comprised of students from the local Christian academy. She knew. Audrey knew. Her father Percy did his best. “I _told_ you to come to Hogwarts. This kind of stuff doesn’t happen there anymore,” Lucy said last break, and Molly had resisted the urge to smack her senseless.   
  
Because whatever may come of it, Molly liked Assimilating. She wouldn’t give it or America up for anything. People _needed_ her.   
  
Like the one they were retrieving in only a few moments. Audrey Weasley took off her cloak and reversed the glimmerspells that concealed her and her daughter. The door in front of them opened without them knocking, revealing a man with the most nasty sneer on his face. “Take the spawn away,” he spat, pushing a teary-eyed girl away. “The family doesn’t need any devil-worshipping in the house.” Audrey’s eyes flashed and grasped the pack from the girl. Molly grabbed the child and quickly Apparated back to where she and her mother had originally left.  
  
The entire way home the group said nothing; the only sound being that of the occasional passing car and the girl’s sniffling. Molly settled the girl into one of the guest rooms as her parents spoke quietly in the kitchen. She noticed the bruises on her girl’s body and said nothing. She said nothing other than a weary ‘thank you’ when Molly finally left her alone. Heart heavy she went across the hall into her own bedroom, where Audrey waited for her.  
  
“Oh, Mom,” she said and promptly burst out into tears.  
  
“It won’t get any easier, Molly,” her mother said. Molly glanced up into her mother’s brown face, her curly black hair tickling her cheek. She shook her head when her mother added, “But you can help some other way, baby, and I won’t think less of you.”  
  
“No.”   
  
_No._  
  
Audrey kissed her forehead, left the room, and that was that.


End file.
